Peyton said if I didn't say I was you'd say, oh c'mon Peyton, you can say yourself.

so he did say himself.

hard to argue, overall he is probably the best right now. He doesn't have the best team around him, but I'd take him over Jake.

That is EXACTLY how it went as I was watching as well. It did NOT appear that Manning was being cocky in any way. He just gave his opinion. And, I agree that it's very hard to argue against him being the best.